That happened to my first X3, dealer had to replace the screen, it was like that when I took delivery becuase someone in the prep area damaged it by accident. They are very very delicate. Only use compressed air and if you have to touch the screen, use one of those LCD cleaning cloths without any water or residue. I would only use a cloth that came with a computer and was inside wrapping. Even the smallest debris can scratch the screen on a cloth.

You basically have two options, you can remove all of the anti-glare coating and have a shiny display (you can search for how to do this), they have protective films that can cover the display.

You can replace the display at a huge cost or you could just live with it.

In the case of my X3 it drove me nuts right off the lot, my eyes kept grimacing at the scratch, especially when the light hit it. I made them replace it in fairly short order.

I had the same thing happen on my 528 and I bought universal screen protector at Walmart and installed it over the damaged screen. Not perfect but it looks better and won't have the same problem in the future.

I installed the Lexerd protector. It was actually a tad too wide and needed some careful trimming but the result was ok if not 100%. You can still see the scratch underneath but it is barely noticeable and much less visible compared with doing nothing. A tip i learned elsewhere on this forum is to use Scotch tape to remove all dust and particles from the screen before installing.

But the quality of the sceen coating from BMW is indeed under par IMO.

I installed the Lexerd protector. It was actually a tad too wide and needed some careful trimming but the result was ok if not 100%. You can still see the scratch underneath but it is barely noticeable and much less visible compared with doing nothing. A tip i learned elsewhere on this forum is to use Scotch tape to remove all dust and particles from the screen before installing.

But the quality of the sceen coating from BMW is indeed under par IMO.

The anti-glare works very well, it's just too soft and scratches easily. A warning should be on the screen device when you are taking delivery, or even better, they could make a scratch resistant anti-glare coating!

I used lens cleaner on the nav screen of my 535i to remove the figure prints and dirty spots, guess what, I completely removed the anti-glare coating near the bottom and right edge, and the portions are so glaring that I could not read the screen anymore under direct sun. I was very mad to myself and also pissed with the quality of the coating from BMW. I used lens cleaner on my TV screen with no problem, and also fine on my phone.

Thank for sharing the info about the protector trick, and I just ordered one online from Lexerd.

Please share your experience in applying it. I don't want to screw it up again, and I assume when it's applied, you can not remove it and reposition it again.

I wonder if BMW has any kind of anti-glare coating spring available that we can spring on to fix the coating. It's crazy to replace it with the cost of 2k. It's so sensitive and delicate that it's very easy to have it scraped off and I am sure many owners may have the same problem. This is just not the quality we expect from BMW.

I used lens cleaner on the nav screen of my 535i to remove the figure prints and dirty spots, guess what, I completely removed the anti-glare coating near the bottom and right edge, and the portions are so glaring that I could not read the screen anymore under direct sun. I was very mad to myself and also pissed with the quality of the coating from BMW. I used lens cleaner on my TV screen with no problem, and also fine on my phone.

Thank for sharing the info about the protector trick, and I just ordered one online from Lexerd.

Please share your experience in applying it. I don't want to screw it up again, and I assume when it's applied, you can not remove it and reposition it again.

Thank you,
Larry

I went with the Lexerd option as mentioned above. First i carefully trimmed it to exact size witout removing the protective coating (wonder why it was a tad too big in the first place) After vacuuming the surrounding area I cleaned the screen carefully with LCD cleaner (the "gel" type) and wiped gently with a soft cotton cloth.

The last preparation was to cover the screen entirely with Scotch tape (use genuine Scotch and not another too sticky tape) which was then peeled off to remove all dust residue. It's extremely important to remove absolutely all dust.

Finally I applied the screen protector wearing medical rubber gloves (the type without talc) to make sure there would be no finger marks, utilizing a discarded credit card to carefully remove air bubbles during application as per Lexerd's instructions.

Almost one year later the solution still works fine. Not as "non-glare" as the original coating but acceptable to me at least.

It is actually possible to remove the protector for re-positioning (wear rubber gloves as mentioned) but the best result is achieved by getting it right the first time. I screwed it up at my first attempt but had bought two screen protectors while I were at it and the second attempt worked out just fine.

I've ran into this issue with my past 3 BMW's. Latest bieng my 2011 X5. After trying a lot of different screen protectors/anti-glare solutions I found that NuSheilds DayVue option is hands down the best out there.

So do most people just put the screen protector on over the scratches? Or do you polish and remove all of the oem BMW anti reflective coating (getting rid of the scratches) and then put on the new screen protector?

Don't know about the others but I put mind on top (without doing anything to the existing coating) and it covered things up well. Doubt most folks would even notice that there's a protector on there since it had similar anti-glare coating. I'm definitely uncomfortable trying to remove the OEM coating or modify it.
The film came in pairs so why not try it out and then if it didn't cover up existing scratches, take more drastic measures?

The display on my 2012 E70 CPO w/ only 13K miles was looking pretty shabby--like many of you have experienced, the anti-glare coating was worn away, probably from an attempt to clean the display. I thought about taking it to the dealer and arguing for replacement of the $2K display, but then I thought it would likely happen again over time because the anti-glare coating is so fragile. So I decided to take the advice of some of you in this forum and apply a screen protector. In my case, I chose to remove the remaining anti-glare coating because it would likely do more harm than good if left in place.

I decided that doing a proper job would be too difficult to do with the screen in the car, so I elected to remove my display. It wasn't very difficult. I found a YouTube video with instructions that were quite helpful:

. Basically, I removed the center vent unit by grabbing it gently under its bottom lip and coaxing it out of the dash. It came away very easily, and I just let it hang by the wires attached to the various switches in the unit. Once the vent unit was removed, the two screws securing the display were easily visible, one in each lower corner. I used a magnetic screwdriver to remove each screw so as not to drop them into the bowels of my dash, and then the display came away by pulling it up and out from the bottom. I then rotated it around and removed the two connectors attaching it to the car. One was a coaxial-looking cable that was slightly difficult to remove. I pushed in on the small plastic release and then inserted my finger nail in the hairline slot between the connector and the fitting attached to the display. A little wiggling, and it easily came off. The second connector was quite simple to remove--I simply squeezed the release levers on each side and it slid right out. I could then remove the display and take it inside my home.

I bought the Novus Plastic polish kit recommend here on this forum from Amazon, and began by cleaning the display with bottle #1, "Plastic Clean & Shine." That didn't remove the blotchy anti-glare coating, so I used bottle #2, "Fine Scratch Remover," and that worked great. I followed the instructions and used a circular motion with the included wipes, and it cleaned up the display quite nicely. Basically, it looked new. I also used a Q-Tip to get around the edges and in the corners. Once that was done, I polished the display again with the "Plastic Clean & Shine."

Next, it was time to apply the screen protector. I decided to buy a protector from Nushield (www.nushield.com) because I saw that others that had purchased the Lexerd protector had to trim it down. Nushield didn't list a protector for my 2012 E70, but customer service was very helpful and the 2011 protector turned out to be the correct size. I purchased some of Nushield's Step 1 wet wipes with my protector, and I cleaned the screen with that and then dried and polished the screen with their included cloth. I then blew off any residual dust particles with some "canned air," available at any office supply store.

Following Nushield's instructions, I removed side 1 of the protective film covering, and laid the film down on one side of my display and started smoothing it on with my fingers. It was an exact fit--in fact, so exact, that I had to finish the job be putting my finger nail under the plastic bezel to get the film to go under the plastic by, perhaps, less than half a millimeter (I did that after removing side 2 of the protective film covering). I smoothed out the film and then pushed it into place in the corners with a toothpick. It went on very nicely, and all the air bubbles were easily pressed out. As I was laying my film down I noticed one speck of dust, so I followed Nushield's instructions and lifted it off with a piece of Scotch tape. I ended up with an absolutely dust-free installation with no bubbles.

Once the film was on, I reinstalled my display in the car. First I connected the flat plastic plug, and then the coaxial cable. I tucked the coaxial cable into the "keepers" cast into the back of the display, flipped the whole thing around and slid it back into place. And then I used my magnetic screw driver to carefully reinstall the screws. Finally, I gently pushed the vent unit back into place, and I was done.

The quality of the film seems to be very high, and the screen now looks great--really, better than new. I turned on the car, and the display looked wonderful! Extremely sharp and glare-free, and free of the ugly blotchiness that was so bothersome. And now I can clean my display worry free because it has no fragile coating.

this was so so so helpful. worked like a charm- pathetic how happy it made me to have this look better than brand new again after my detailer took some of the original anti-glare finish off! whoooo hoooooo. thanks for the help!!!!

Thanks to this post I ordered NuShield film for my 2013 X3 8" navigation screen. Several points:

- Film was a bit smaller (by about 1/16") than the screen size. When I talked to NuShield rep, we acknowledged that this is indeed the case, and it is designed for people to be able to remove the film. I agree with his explanation now;

-The best way to install film is to start from one side, and let it gently and slowly fall onto the screen section by section. This way any surface dust reveals itself right away. Film immediately attaches to a clean LCD surface;

-Film is easy to be completely or partially removed, and use a sticky tape to clean any residual dust particles, and re-attache it again;

-When I used a compressed air can, it spilled a bit of its liquid propellant on the film, and left some permanent surface marks there;

-When it was installed, film is a bit too glossy to my taste. You can see reflections of surrounding in it. It takes some time to get used to;

-Film does excellent job in sun reflection removal. It is almost like a miracle when you see part of the screen lit up by the sun, and yet entire LCD image is clearly visible.

Overall I am happy with the film quality, although it took me some effort to install it without large dust particles. It just I could not find a dust-free environment around for a cleaner installation.